Chapter 69: Blood of the Covenant

Blood of the Covenant

The night erupted in chaos.

Kael's voice hung in the air like smoke, thick and suffocating. Torches flared along the eastern wall, illuminating the sea of Nyxfiends clawing at the barricade. Their antlers glinted like bone shards, eyes burning with a hunger that had nothing to do with flesh. Aria's pulse roared in her ears, the Flame writhing beneath her skin, eager as a hound scenting blood.

Alexander gripped her arm, his fingers digging into her flesh. "Don't. It's a trap."

"He'll slaughter them all if I don't," she said, wrenching free. The truth of it curdled in her gut. Kael had orchestrated this—the ambush, Seraphina's kidnapping, elder Miriam's death—to prove a point: *You are never safe. Not from me.*

Marisol materialized beside them, her robes singed at the hem. "The wards are failing. If they breach the gate—"